Description: In a last, desperate attempt to force Maj. Gen. William
T. Sherman’s army out of Georgia, Gen. John Bell Hood led the Army of Tennessee
north toward Nashville in November 1864. Although he suffered a terrible
loss at Franklin, he continued toward Nashville. In operating against Nashville,
he decided that destruction of the Nashville & Chattanooga Railroad
and disruption of the Union army supply depot at Murfreesboro would help
his cause. He sent Maj. Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest, on December 4, with
an expedition, composed of two cavalry divisions and Maj. Gen. William
B. Bate’s infantry division, to Murfreesboro. On December 2, Hood had ordered
Bate to destroy the railroad and blockhouses between Murfreesboro and Nashville
and join Forrest for further operations; on December 4, Bate’s division
attacked Blockhouse No. 7 protecting the railroad crossing at Overall Creek,
but Union forces fought it off. On the morning of the 5th, Forrest headed
out toward Murfreesboro, splitting his force, one column to attack the
fort on the hill and the other to take Blockhouse No. 4, both at La Vergne.
Upon his demand for surrender at both locations, the Union garrisons did
so. Outside La Vergne, Forrest hooked up with Bate’s division and the command
advanced on to Murfreesboro along two roads, driving the Yankees into their
Fortress Rosencrans fortifications, and encamped in the city outskirts
for the night. The next morning, on the 6th, Forrest ordered Bate’s division
to “move upon the enemy’s works.” Fighting flared for a couple of hours,
but the Yankees ceased firing and both sides glared at each other for the
rest of the day. Brig. Gen. Claudius Sears’s and Brig. Gen. Joseph B. Palmer’s
infantry brigades joined Forrest’s command in the evening, further swelling
his numbers. On the morning of the 7th, Maj. Gen. Lovell Rousseau, commanding
all of the forces at Murfreesboro, sent two brigades out under Brig. Gen.
Robert Milroy on the Salem Pike to feel out the enemy. These troops engaged
the Confederates and fighting continued. At one point some of Forrest’s
troops broke and ran causing disorder in the Rebel ranks; even entreaties
from Forrest and Bate did not stem the rout of these units. The rest of
Forrest’s command conducted an orderly retreat from the field and encamped
for the night outside Murfreesboro. Forrest had destroyed railroad track,
blockhouses, and some homes and generally disrupted Union operations in
the area, but he did not accomplish much else. The raid on Murfreesboro
was a minor irritation.